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Idris Goodwin

Assistant Professor

Idris Goodwin is one of the most dynamic and innovative young playwrights in the country. He received his BA in Film, Video, and Screenwriting from Columbia College, his MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and continues graduate work at the University of Iowa’s Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

He has taught as an adjunct or visiting artist at the universities of Northwestern, DePaul, Iowa, Illinois, and New Mexico, respectively, and taught Performance Poetry at the Indian American Institute of Arts. He also has been a teaching artist in residence a middle/high schools in Chicago and Albuquerque. Goodwin reaches out to spoken word, break beat poetry, hip-hop, and film/video as interdisciplinary venues.

Mr. Goodwin’s play Blackademicschew the flan waiting for death and/or tenure…was produced at MPAACT in Chicago in the fall of 2012. How We Got On was also produced in 2012 at ATL Louisville’s Humana Festival (the country’s premier new works festival) and Untitled 10 minute play was produced at Chicago’s American Theatre Company. Already at this early phase of his career, his works—solo or otherwise—have been staged by Victory Gardens, Steppenwolf, and the MCA in Chicago, the Pillsbury Center in Minneapolis, and the Revolutions Theater Festival in Albuquerque. He is the recipient of numerous national awards, fellowships, and honors.

Recently Mr. Goodwin's play And in This Corner...Cassius Claypremiered at the Kentucky Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The play explores the early life of the man who would later rename himself Muhammad Ali. Steppenwolf for Young Adults theatre in Chicago will soon present another play written by Goodwin, This is Modern Art (based on true events). The play will run February 25 through March 14, 2015, at Downstairs Theatre. Another one of his works, the monologue "They Shootin!"was featured in the anthology of monolgues Hands Up: 6 Playwrights: 6 Testaments, which was recommended in American Theatre magazine.